Massive slump in the Swiss advertising market in April

This corresponds to a further decline of -29.5 percent compared to the previous month, which already showed the first signs of the curfew. In a year-on-year comparison, the gross advertising print in April is even 40.2 percent or 210 million gross advertising francs lower than in 2019. Overall, the gross advertising print in 2020 (YTD) amounts to 1.6 billion. A minus of -17.2 percent.

Advertising pressure in the overall market

Development of advertising print as of April 2020 in million gross Swiss francs

The crisis hits out-of-home with a delay - but hard

Empty streets, empty streetcars. Why put up billboards when hardly anyone sees them? That's probably what advertisers in Switzerland thought. The result was 66.3 percent less advertising than in the previous year. However, the effect was somewhat delayed. Other media groups already showed declines in gross advertising print in March. An example of an OOH image campaign from Germany shows how creativity can be used to convert advertising print into media reach. "We thank everyone who doesn't see this poster #". The sender: hohes C.

Only cinemas were hit harder than OOH in April. These remained closed. The consequence - no advertising pressure.

Radio advertising experiences the third strongest percentage decline (-56.2%), followed by print advertising (-42.8%) and TV advertising (-38.0%). Internet advertising shows the highest stability with "only" a quarter less gross advertising than in the previous year (-25.1%).

Crisis winners: Tobacco products alone on a wide track

Only the tobacco industry increased its advertising pressure year-on-year, as in the previous month (+57.8 percent). However, this has no impact on the overall development of the Swiss advertising market. With less than half a million gross advertising francs, the tobacco industry's share is 0.1 percent.

Advertising print reduction > 50 percent

The events industry has been hit the hardest. The gross power print has fallen in April 2020, compared to 2019, by 84.7 percent. This is followed by the vehicle industry, without car showrooms, commuter traffic and the secure purchasing power of customers, advertising print, the industry with a strong affinity for billboard advertising, falls by 75.1 percent in April.

Leisure, hospitality, tourism (-64.2 percent), transportation (-63.5 percent), energy (-55.2 percent) and fashion & sports (-50.5 percent) round out the list of industries whose gross value print more than halved in April compared to a year ago.
Outlook

The results for the advertising industry after six weeks of lockdown are sobering. With the first easing on May 11, there is now light at the end of the tunnel. It will be interesting to see whether and how quickly the Swiss (advertising) industry picks up speed again.

Advertising printing in the industries

Top of the month

Top advertisers and most advertised products and services (excluding product range and image advertising) in April

Media Mix

Media Mix for the month of April